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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 8, 1981)
opinion_ Castration won’t solve rape problem Pat Horton has high hopes of deterring po tential rapists. Second-offense rapists should be made in capable of raping again — surgically, says the Lane County District Attorney. Such definitive action, Horton insists, would stop repeat of fenders and deter potential rapists. Welcome to the Horton theory of rape prevention. While efforts to deter rape should be ap plauded, resorting to an inhumane method to stop a violent crime is both foolish and unrealistic. Rape is a violent crime. And like other crimes of violence, it should be treated as violence — not necessarily sexual desire. “Society needs to understand that rape is not a sex crime,” says Marcia Morgan, crime preven tion specialist for the Lane County Sheriff’s office. “Rape is a crime of violence — motivated by a desire to dominate.” Surgical removal of the desire for sex will not remove violent tendencies. And while we doubt that the incidence of rape would decrease, the violence and hatred would only be transmuted into other violent crimes. We seem obsessed with treating the symp toms that manifest themselves in violent'action — Oregon’s death penalty statute, recently ruled unconstitutional, didn’t deter violent crimes. By resorting to a surgical deterrent to rape we again would be treating the symptom. Neither the death penalty nor the Horton method treat the cause. Both respond emotional ly, not logically, to the problem. Like the “Off with Their Rocks” stickers that were posted on campus last year, Horton’s sug gestion of castration doesn’t offer a real solution to violence. The Biblical “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth” adage should not be the basis of modern efforts to deter crime. Most criminologists would admit the adage doesn’t work. Instead, we need to stop the crime before it happens. Education and community cooperation with local law enforcement agencies are the keys to crime prevention. Police suggest that a woman secure her home, display a confident attitude and be willing to fight back. In addition, children should be taught at an early age how to prevent sexual attacks, and the violence and inhumane nature of the crime should be stressed. And society must perceive rape as the violent, heinous crime it is. The justice system must be dedicated to the quick prosecution and incarceration of offenders. Courts could impose longer sentences and design more stringent parole guidelines. But castration isn’t the solution. va jrs For college students The Peach Fuzz Humor contained in the April Fools’ Day Immorald was defin itely entertaining. There were some chuckling postdocs in my lab. In any case, the Emerald is supposedly written for college students, not college presidents or district attorneys. What other faction of society can poke such fun at authority? Keep pulling the lion’s tail. Someone needs to Eileen Raymund-Wooten Griffith Lab Secretary Institute of Molecular Biology Immorald failed As a student and teacher of satire for 16 years on this campus, I am respond ing to your request for reactions to this year's "Daily Immorald." Great satire is often coarse, even obscene. But it is so in concert with a firm moral vision. It is also, ultimately, funny. This year’s "Immorald" fails on both scores. It is unleavened by wit or purpose. It takes no risks, except with the reputation of the University, which unfortunatlely must suffer unjustly for the paper’s indiscretions. If the "Immorald" aims are less lofty than satire, can it be regarded as mere humor? I think not. It isn’t funny. With few exceptions, the "Immorald” is a bore, inconsequential, dumb — about on a level, intellectually, with two six-year olds trying to out-toilet-talk one another. Secure in the legal proof of the first amendment and the warm benevolence of the academic community, the "Im morald" smugly makes its little mess which the rest of us are left to clean up, insofar as that is possible. There is a real world out there, however, in which the paper’s writers will soon find themselves. I doubt that any of them will be sought out by "Mad” or “National Lampoon" let alone "The New York Times” for their abilities. And having seen all the dirty words used up, what will next year’s writers of the “Immorald" do? Try, perhaps, to make it on talent? Wit? Dare they be so bold? Glen A. Love English Department Love it or leave I would like to address these com ments to David Isenberg and those who share his views that he owes this country absolutely nothing and should use every loop-hole to avoid military service. It is too bad Mr Isenberg can’t spend his time and efforts attempting to help the gover ment, instead of helping commie sissies find ways of avoiding service to their country. I would like to know how they think we’ve come to live as we do in the U S. today—we're here because our fathers and grandfathers fought in the armed forces. If Mr. Isenberg is so interested in "international studies” and sherking his responsibility as an American, why doesn’t he go to Russia or the like—these governments shoot people for letters like he wrote to the Emerald. I can see Isenberg standing on the graves of American fighting men and cheering the cowards returning from Canada via Ford’s pardon They had every right to leave if they felt that to be their cause-but those who were afraid did not have the right-and none of them had the right to return. These are the same people who stand and watch someone beaten-to-death and too afraid to help stop it. Mr Isenberg should have the chance to live as many of the world’s repressed people live; I hardly think he could survive. He might then understand the need for armies and well-intentioned (if not always perfect) government inter vention. The army would certainly allow him the experience to grow up and realize that the world isn’t an extension of Sesame Street where the forces of evil automatically succumb to good guys in white hats. The U S. isn’t perfect by a long shot but it's time the American people got behind her 100 percent. We live better than people anywhere in the world and yet all people like Isenberg can do is complain. Go to the USSR David and see how far your crying and moaning gets you. In the mean time, I feel sorry for anyone so unsure of what they're made of and those who are afraid they don't have the guts to do what American men and women have done throughout his tory to help the repressed and keep our country great! I don’t know who said it first, but I would like to see it adopted by those afraid of themselves: “you need not know defeat when the inner braces are strong." James D. Miller Junior, psych-vet In left field There is a long practiced inequality in the distribution of labor which needs to be brought to the public’s attention. It is discrimination between the right and left hands, the right hand getting by far the greater proportion of skilled jobs. But if the left hand had proper training, it could do the same jobs too. Our laws need to be changed. Where they read, “No left turn,” they should say, “No right turn either,’’ or be repealed. Let us campaign for a change We need to start with our ingrained habits of speech. When a speaker makes a strong point, shout out, "Left on!" When you -—-J come home late from the campaign and your husband asks, “What’s for dinner, honey?," reply, "Rightovers.” The worst example of this inequality is the latest proposed constitutional amendment, which uses biased language—The Equal Rights Amend ment. What about lefts? They need amending too. Earl Gosnell 1293Vi Tyler Street Supports math In the University Senate debate on the math requirements, a statement was made that architecture students often fail the structural and mathematical sections of licensing exams. University of Oregon graduates have a better-than-national average success rate on the professional examination. Two-thirds of UO graduates taking the ‘‘design tech nology" section of the exam pass, and virtually all UO graduates pass the "environmental analysis" section (1 failure among 35 examinees in 1979). I support the mathematics proficiency requirement for the B.S. degree and for majors in architecture. Meanwhile, our graduates apparently are obtaining en ough technical and mathematical un derstanding to have success in these areas of the professional licensing ex aminations. Robert S. Harris, Dean School of Architecture and Allied Arts
